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Yuval Raphael Meets With Israeli President Herzog Before Departing for 2025 Eurovision Song Contest
Yuval Raphael at President’s Residence in Jerusalem meeting with President Isaac and First Lady Michal Herzog. Photo: Ma’ayan Toaf (GPO)
Singer Yuval Raphael, Israel’s representative in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, met with Israeli President Isaac and First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Monday shortly before traveling to Basel, Switzerland, to compete in the international singing competition.
The Ra’anana native – who is a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023 – will compete in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “New Day Will Rise,” a ballad written by singer and songwriter Keren Peles. The song is mostly in English but features some French and Hebrew lyrics as well.
Raphael will participate in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be broadcast on May 15, and, if she advances, will compete in the grand final on May 18. She won season 11 of the Israeli television show “HaKokhav HaBa,” (“The Next Star”), whose winner goes on to represent Israel in the Eurovision contest.
Before leaving for Switzerland, Raphael talked to President Herzog about her mindset going into the competition. “On the one hand, I’m arriving and working as someone who wants to win and is doing everything with that goal, but on the other hand, I can’t help but feel that just being there is already a victory, that I have the privilege to do this,” she said, according to the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO).
“We’re coming to win no matter what,” added the singer, who lived in Geneva for three years as a child. “I don’t have time to breathe — we’re working around the clock to deliver the best result possible. It really feels like preparing for the Olympics.”
Herzog gave Raphael words of encouragement, telling her that she has will have Israel’s support throughout the competition.
“We are all with you,” he said. “You have a wonderful personality, your story is incredible, and every time I hear the song, my heart swells with pride. We want so much for you to succeed.”
“When you step on that stage, remember that you will be in the hearts of every Israeli home, of the entire Jewish people in the Diaspora, and especially in the hearts of the pure and grieving families of the Nova tragedy, of that horrific massacre,” he further noted. “We are immensely proud of you and wish you the best of luck in this mission.”
Raphael survived the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, in Re’im, Israel, by hiding from Hamas terrorists in a roadside bomb shelter. For several hours, she pretended to be dead and laid under dead bodies until she was rescued. Terrorists killed 370 people and kidnapped 44 civilians during their deadly rampage at the music festival.
Last year’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest, Eden Golan, finished fifth place in the competition. She made it to the top five despite being booed on stage by anti-Israel audience members, facing death threats, and having a Eurovision jury member refuse to give her points because of his personal resentment toward Israel’s military actions in the Gaza war. Golan also said she was forced to conceal her identity outside her hotel room in Malmo, Sweden, where the Eurovision was held last year, because of the threats she received from activists furious about Israel’s participation in the contest.
Israel has been competing in the Eurovision since 1973 and won four times — in 1978 with Izhar Cohen’s “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” 1979 with Milk and Honey’s “Hallelujah,” 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva,” and in 2018 with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy.”
The Eurovision Song Contest is organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Several national broadcasters have criticized the EBU’s decision to let Israel participate in this year’s competition because of the country’s military actions targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. Iceland’s national broadcaster most recently called for Israel to be removed from Eurovision 2025, not long after Slovenia’s broadcaster and Spain’s broadcaster RTVE raised their own issues with Israel competing in the contest this year.
A spokesperson for the EBU told HuffPost UK last week that Israel’s national broadcaster Kan submitted an application to join the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest before the September deadline and “the application met all the competition rules.”
“As an independent media organization, our decisions are based on these rules,” the spokesperson added. “We all aspire to keep the Eurovision Song Contest positive and celebratory and aspire to show the world as it could be, rather than how it necessarily is. The EBU remains aligned with other international organizations that have similarly maintained their inclusive stance towards Israeli participants in major competitions at this time.”
The EBU spokesperson additionally noted that the union acknowledges “the concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the Middle East.”
“The EBU is an association of public service broadcasters who are all eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest every year,” the spokesperson further noted. “We are not immune to global events but, together, it is our role to ensure the contest remains – at its heart – a universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music.”
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At Least 12 Killed in Massive Russian Attack on Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Russia-Ukraine War: About three and a half years after the outbreak of the war, Russia carried out last night (Sunday) the largest air attack since it began. At least 12 people were killed, including three children, and dozens more were injured when 367 rockets and missiles were fired at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized US policy, which so far has taken a soft stance towards Russia, and recently hinted that it would stop mediating between the two countries: “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram. “Every such Russian terrorist attack is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in a night attack. According to him, they shot down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage was caused to several areas, including the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In parallel, a prisoner of war exchange deal was concluded. In Russia, reports said that 303 prisoners were transferred from each side. In total, over the last three days 2,000 prisoners, 1,000 Ukrainians and 1,000 Russians, have been returned to their countries. Zelensky thanked the servicemen of the armed forces, and promised to bring all the prisoners home. “Today, our armed forces, the national guard, the state border service, and the special state transport service are returning home.”
“I am grateful to the team that worked around the clock to successfully execute these exchanges,” he added. “We will certainly bring back each and every one of our people from Russian captivity.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that the Russian army may reach a severe shortage of manpower and weapons in the next year. The Ukrainian army is also in trouble, and it is offering generous economic grants to new recruits.
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UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a “teaspoon” of aid was getting in following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.
The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday, for a total of 305 since Monday when the blockade was relaxed.
But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful and U.N. officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed every day.
So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have got past the Kerem Shalom crossing point and into Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.
Despite the relaxation of the blockade, distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, an umbrella network representing Palestinian aid groups said.
“They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger,” the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks.
The U.N. World Food Program said 15 trucks carrying flour to WFP-supported bakeries had been looted, which it said reflected the dire conditions facing Gazans.
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity,” it said in a statement.
A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.
Israel imposed the blockade in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from armed looters.
“Hamas constantly calls the looters ‘guards’ or protectors’ to mask the fact that they’re disturbing the aid process,” an Israeli military official said.
‘DESPERATION’
With most of Gaza’s 2 million population squeezed into an ever narrowing zone on the coast and in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis by Israel’s military operation, international pressure to get aid in quickly has ratcheted up.
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A German government spokesperson said the aid was “far too little, too late and too slow,” adding that delivery of supplies had to be increased significantly.
Israel has announced that a new system, sponsored by the United States and run by private contractors, will soon begin operations from four distribution centers in the south of Gaza, but many details of how the system will work remain unclear.
The U.N. has already said it will not work with the new system, which it says will leave aid distribution conditional on Israel’s political and military aims.
Israel says its forces will only provide security for the centers and will not distribute aid themselves.
As the aid has begun to trickle in, the Israeli military has continued the intensified ground and air operation launched last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would end with Israel taking full control of the Gaza Strip.
The military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
The post UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Swiss Authorities Exploring Probe Into US-Backed Gaza Aid Group
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Swiss authorities said on Sunday they were exploring whether to open a legal investigation into the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization that plans to oversee aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave.
The move comes after a Swiss NGO submitted a request for a probe into GHF’s aid plan, which the United Nations has opposed, saying it is not impartial or neutral and forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.
The GHF, which has said it hopes to start work in Gaza by the end of May, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians.
Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week after having stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2.
TRIAL International, a Switzerland-based NGO, on Friday said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate whether the Swiss-registered GHF complies with Swiss law and international humanitarian law.
The submissions were made to the Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on May 20 and 21.
The FDFA on Sunday confirmed to Reuters that both authorities had received the submissions.
TRIAL International said it asked the Swiss FDFA to explain if the GHF had submitted a declaration, in accordance with Swiss law, to use private security companies to distribute aid, and if it had been approved by Swiss authorities.
The FDFA told Reuters it is investigating whether such a declaration would be required for the foundation.
It said that the Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations cannot review whether foundations comply with their statutes until they start their activities.
The GHF told Reuters that though using private security firms represents a change from prior aid delivery frameworks, it would ensure aid is not diverted to Hamas or criminal organizations.
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